Mission and Values

Our Mission
The mission of the Alliance is to strengthen and support progressive grassroots groups in Wisconsin’s Columbia, Dane, Green, Iowa, Lafayette, Rock and Sauk Counties by enabling and facilitating the exchange of ideas, collaboration, coordination, and mutual support among them.

By ‘grassroots group’, we mean any citizen’s group that is:

autonomous, i.e., not guided by any higher organization such as a state or national organization, but sets its own areas of activity, priorities, and procedures;

local, i.e., serves a community of people or a locality within CD 2;

civic, i.e., has areas of interest and activity that are connected to citizenship or the community; and

multifaceted, that is, does not limit its activities and interests to a single issue or topic.

A progressive group shares the following values.

Our ValuesAs progressive nonpartisan grassroots groups, we come together to practice our inherent, enduring right to self-government wisely and to support our fellow citizens in doing the same. We value a government of, by, and for its human citizens, and we work peacefully and constructively to protect it from those ever-present few who seek to exercise power over us without our consent. We believe governments should actively serve the purpose for which free men and women created them, which is to promote and protect the opportunities and rights of every living individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We envision strong communities with:
Governments that are transparent, accountable, and responsive first and foremost to the needs and interests of the families and individuals they serve;

Public health services and individual healthcare that reduces preventable illness and disability to the lowest levels possible;

High-quality free public education that supports each of the community’s children in becoming a healthy, well-rounded, productive adult to the best of his or her ability and talents;

Clean air and water, and sources of energy that support economic activity without damaging our health or the future of our children;

Safe, affordable, and effective public infrastructure that effectively and economically supports commerce and the needs of the community, including transportation, utilities, modes of communication, parks, public safety and other commonly held resources.

A consistent, just system of laws and enforcement that keeps community members safe from street crime, official crime, and white-collar crime; and

Fair and effective taxation that provides our government with resources sufficient to carry out its functions and provides incentive for each citizen to earn a living that can at least maintain a basic quality of life, while counteracting the unequal influence that excessive wealth exerts on our political, economic, and social systems.

An economic system that allows entrepreneurial opportunities to those who desire self-employment, and provides a sufficient number of family-supporting jobs for those who desire employment. We value working conditions that allow employees to maintain their health and productivity and to be responsible citizens, spouses, and parents outside the workplace.